Kharkiv School of Photography: Soviet Censorship to New Aesthetics: Part 3 - Contemporary Photographers Exhibition 2

Igor Chekachkov

Igor Chekachkov (b. 1989) is a representative of the youngest generation of Kharkiv School artists, but since 2013 he has been actively exhibiting his work both in Ukraine and abroad.

The communist ideology has always been the critical focus of Kharkiv photographers. Chekachkov’s 2013 - 2015 Veterans project shows World War II survivors on their annual V-Day gatherings. Decorated with all possible awards, not necessarily achieved for combat action, with Lenin’s monument in the background, some dignified, some just simply pathetic, they are a living representation of the country’s Soviet past. This very recent work of a very young artist is reminiscent of Boris Mikailov’s (The Red Series) and other Vremya Group artists’ 1970’s - 1990’s endeavor.